


Just To Find Emotion

by OveliaGirlHaditRight



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: A New Day, But you can see it as Joshyme if you want, Canon, F/M, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Oneshot, Post-Canon, Really platonic between Joshua and Rhyme, Rhyme also has a crush on Neku here but knows her crushes won't go anywhere and is okay with it, Romance if you squint, Since Josh is in love with Neku here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:40:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25061764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OveliaGirlHaditRight/pseuds/OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: Because I’m still apparently trash for Joshyme for some reason... a Joshyme piece I wrote (or moreover finished up) in celebration of the TWEWY anime. But it’s really platonic, because Joshua is in love with Neku here--tbh--and Rhyme has a crush on both Joshua and Neku, but knows neither will go anywhere and is content with that.Post-A New Day. Them talking about A New Day stuff and dealing with it.
Relationships: Bito "Rhyme" Raimu & Kiryu "Joshua" Yoshiya, Bito "Rhyme" Raimu/Kiryu "Joshua" Yoshiya, Kiryu "Joshua" Yoshiya/Sakuraba Neku, Rhyme having a crush on Neku
Comments: 7
Kudos: 7





	Just To Find Emotion

"Don't feel bad, Raimu Bito. If I were you, I'd feel bad for that Game that represented you horribly, too... Reasons why it wasn't one of my Reaper's Games."

Joshua was telling Rhyme after this, after she’d expressed to him how… awful it was, that Beat had told her there’d been a fake version of her in a new Reaper’s Game, so to speak, and she’d really only been there to get eaten by the Shark Noise again. And had even “sacrificed herself” to it to try and save Beat, and prove to him that it was “her”.

"Is it... awful that that was the first thing I focused on?" Rhyme asked now, remembering at once that Neku had just been murdered. Again. Perhaps she was focusing on the silly part of it all right now, because she didn’t want to deal with that horrible truth. "Neku just died, and yet-"

"No, it’s not bad of you, Raimu,” Joshua interrupted Rhyme with much kindness—an oxymoron, she was sure—as he summoned a hot chocolate into his hands with his powers and gave it to her. They then sat down together in Rhyme’s far too yellow living room—a color she’d always hated, that was apparently bad for babies, that sometimes made her wonder if it was for it, that Beat had rebelled and she’d become repressed. “One always thinks of themselves first—even someone as selfless as you—so you’re behaving normally in your grief.”

Rhyme couldn’t help wondering where Joshua’s grief was, then… because he clearly cared about Neku in some way—it was why he’d come over to talk to this girl he barely knew, that he’d restored the body and soul of for whatever reason—and yet he was being… stoic about Neku. But maybe that was how he dealt… in helping others deal. He must have been chosen to be the Composer, with Shibuya’s UG in his hands, for a reason.

"What can I do to help Neku?" Rhyme asked now, taking a sip of the blistering hot cocoa and all the marshmallows and sprinkles on it, before she returned to the matter at hand. It was just who she was… and while she appreciated that Joshua was trying to comfort the little girl by giving her an elaborate drink, she wasn’t going to mess with it anymore. Not until Neku was by their side again. "Shiki's probably too broken to try and find him right now, and to be his Partner while she’s still in the RG. But maybe I could-"

And at this, Joshua was sighing, as he pulled away from Rhyme on the sofa and she couldn’t imagine why. “Don’t be so unselfish, Rhyme,” the god reprimanded her, whilst he sent a cold look her way. “What? You think I brought you back to life for no reason—or unfairly—because you lost the Game? And now you want to make up for that by risking life and limb to save Neky-kins? Well, I won’t allow it. Neku seems lost to the going ons of Shinjuku now, anyway, and I have no power there.”

"…The lady doth protest too much, Joshua," Rhyme argued… feeling somewhat hurt as she did, because she stupidly had a crush on Joshua based on all she’d heard about him. But she had one on the hero that was Neku too, didn’t she? “You… care about Neku—and I’m not saying how!—but I know come hell or high water, you’re going to get him back.”

Joshua looked at Rhyme in an irritated manner once more. And she thought he might reprimand her again… but instead, he patted her on the head once as he looked at their mantle—that beautifully had more pieces about Beat atop it, rather than her—and said rather thoughtfully, “I guess we have that sort of recklessness in common, then. Because while you’re angry about this imposter version of you… I know that you would happily get eaten by a Noise again to save your loved ones, wouldn’t you? Like I’m more than willing to risk getting shot again for Neku. Some pair we make, eh Rhyme?”

And she certainly thought they did… because if the Composer of Shibuya was really going to team up with a girl who hadn’t won the last Game to save Neku—and perhaps the world—she got the sense that something so crazy was going to be born from that, that Sanae Hanekoma might have to intervene again to keep things from going haywire.

“And so the lady doesn’t protest anymore,” Rhyme ribbed Joshua. And the only response she got to that, was him putting his hand on her head tighter—while they both again looked at the wall before them and tried to get a handle on their emotions.


End file.
